There has been a proliferation of electronic equipment employed in the battlefield. More particularly, a soldier carries a plurality of electronic devices that require battery power. These electronic devices may include one or more radios, a GPS receiver, a laser target designator, and a battlefield computer. Mission profiles have increased the number of handheld devices and the time that the devices need to operate. In certain conditions, a soldier may need to carry up to 72 batteries of varying voltage and current requirements and size, the total number of batteries having a weight in excess of 20 pounds. Moreover, many batteries, such as lithium-ion batteries, have the potential to catch fire or even explode when in use.
Hence, there is a need in the art to reduce battery weight and the types of batteries carried by a soldier.
Conventional portable power solutions have reduced total battery count and weight by replacing the batteries with so-called battery eliminators. When battery eliminators are employed, the various batteries associated with the plurality of electronic devices are removed and the resulting empty battery compartments are retrofitted with adapters that directly supply power. Power is continuously supplied from a wearable battery via cables configured to be integrally attached to each of the adapters incorporated into the body armor of the soldier. As a result, when/if the soldier removes any electronic equipment from his body armor, power is lost to the removed electronic equipment. Further, battery eliminators continue to supply power at about 100% capacity, which produces inefficiencies.
Accordingly, what would be desirable, but has not yet been provided, is a system and a method for continuously charging a plurality of original equipment manufacturer (OEM) batteries carried in equipment worn by a soldier on the battlefield that is ergonomic to use, that reduces the cost and complexity of controlling centralized power to the multiple devices carried by the soldier, that supplies power to multiple devices using a charging method that provides a maximum device charge with a minimum consumption of energy in a minimal amount of time, where power is not lost when/if the electronic equipment from the body armor is removed.